Students who tuned in to President Bush’s State of the Union address Tuesday night offered reactions from warm to downright frigid.
Some criticized the speech for a number of reasons: It didn’t address the important issues, the new proposals aren’t right for the country and Bush’s trip-ups made him look foolish.
Some, such as Weinberg sophomore Veena Sriram, found the speech insincere, saying that Bush is “trying to pull wool over America’s eyes.”
“His agenda should be what’s important for the country — not for re-election,” she said.
Bush began the speech offering evidence to support the war in Iraq and U.S. foreign policy, then delved into major domestic proposals, laying out the themes that experts said will highlight Bush’s re-election campaign.
Two major concerns that Northwestern students felt Bush overlooked were the growth of the budget deficit — expected to hit $500 billion this year — and America’s unpopularity among the world.
“He didn’t address a number of issues,” said Thomas Madathany, a Weinberg sophomore and a foreign student from India. “The U.S.’s unpopularity is at its highest. He didn’t address this factor at all.”
Other students said they were perplexed by some issues Bush did discuss — he addressed steroid use among athletes but not his space initiative and he came a hair shy of calling for a gay marriage ban.
Students who liked the speech said they found appeal in its clarity and delivery. It was good, but not great, they said.
Medill freshman Guy Benson said he found the speech good, if politically safe.
“I think he didn’t want to lose the country here,” said Benson, who also co-hosts the political show “Feedback” on WNUR. “I’ve never seen in a State of the Union where it almost seemed like he was giving a rebuttal to his opponents.”
Lee Huebner, a communication studies and journalism professor who once served as a speechwriter for President Nixon, said the speech was impressive rhetorically. But he was critical on content, such as when Bush tallied off U.S. allies for the war in Iraq in the speech’s beginning to show the multinational character of the effort.
“We really ought to pay more attention to how we look in the eyes of the world,” he said. “Boy, there’s a lot more to the story in what we’re doing than just the small number of troops those countries were sending.”
Huebner said Bush’s strong point was his focus on social reforms, which he said marked a return to the “compassionate conservative” themes of his first campaign.
Where Bush fell short, Huebner said, was in his “intertwined” remarks about the war in Iraq war and the war on terror.
Weinberg freshman Mackenzie Nicholson contributed to this report.
